Georgia pulls out of Eurovision after controversial song is banned

Georgia will not take part in this year's Eurovision Song Contest after it decided not to enter a new song following the banning of its controversial tune 'We Don't Wanna Put In'.

Stephane and 3G: Members of Georgia's Eurovision 2009 song contest entry, pop group "Stephane and 3GPhoto: AFP

By Sarah Marcus in Tbilisi

5:29PM GMT 11 Mar 2009

The withdrawal follows the decision of the European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, that the song by Stephane and 3G contravened the rules of the competition.

The chorus of the song, 'We don't wanna put in the negative move, it's killing the groove', has been widely interpreted as making a mockery of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "No lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision Song Contest," state the EBU rules.

The Eurovision authorities offered Georgia the choice of either changing the lyrics of the song or entering a different one. The Georgians deny that there is any political content in the song and say that therefore they see no reason to change anything and will instead withdraw from the competition.

"There really is nothing negative about this song," lead singer Stephane said. "In any democratic country it would be taken as a harmless joke."

Georgia appealed to the EBU to revise their decision but they declined.

In a letter sent to the EBU, the producers of the song said that they had their suspicions that the decision to ask Georgia to revise its entry came about as a result of pressure from Russia, where this year's contest is to be held.

They also said that they understood decisions taken by Eurovision authorities were apolitical.

Georgia's withdrawal is likely to go down well in Russia, where there have been small demonstrations against the song.